Mr. John Douglas:

There is a major profitable multinational retailer in Ireland that will remain nameless - at this juncture anyway - that only guarantees its workers 15 hours a week. It works its workers between 15 and 39 hours a week but only guarantees them 15. They could be working 30 or 35 hours a week for years, but for some reason that could be dropped to 15. An employee cannot then go to look for a second job because the employee cannot tell the second employer when he or she is available. He or she will not know when he or she will be available from week to week. Those employees are trapped in that job and trapped in poverty.